( 15 ) 
Furniture.— I he Committee ordered two semi-but- 
tress cases for the east gallery aud one insect case. 
They have also had the copies of the Polonuaruwa 
frescoes framed. His excelleaoy the Goveruor 
ako ordered two notice boar.ls to be af&xed to the out- 
side gates. All the cases have been re-fitted with new 
screws and sockets. _ 
Publications.— The printing of the List of Moths is 
not yet finished, but I hope it will be completed early 
next year. The new List of Birds has been passed by 
the Committee 
On the Use of Forjial in Preserving Zoological 
Specimens.— In my repoct for 1896, whilst dwellins; 
npon the great utility of formal, I did not mention its 
great fault; which howerer, it shares with alcohol and 
all other preservative medii I have ever tried, viz., its 
bleaching pi-operty. This is specially exhibited in the 
Crustacea, which really cannot be preserved in it for 
exhibition parposes, as"their colours entirely disappear. 
I tried to check this action by using it in conjunction 
with various salts, and to a certain extent they neutra- 
lize it, but not sufficiently. Pare glycerine can alone 
be trusted to keep colour, because is excludes air and 
water. These are the destroyers of animal colour, not 
light. If these can be excluded, ]is;ht seems to have 
scarcely any action. A star fish Oreastes turitus, Lamk 
was placed in a three-per-cent solution of formal sa- 
turated with common salt. Its magnifioent colour was 
perfectly preserved for about eighteen months, when 
it faded suddenly in a few days, and there is now 
scarcely a trace of it. Auothar specimen of the same 
species that has been many years in glycerine has the 
colour slightly deepened but is not otherwise chaneed. 
Epsom salt (sulphate of magnesit) acts in very differ- 
ent ways ; it is better for Crustacea than common 
salt, but the colour is not permanently preserved. It 
has however a most remarkable property ; the fugitive 
blues, greens, and violets of such Wrasses as Gom- 
phosus are perfectly preserved by it for at 
feast a year. A specimen of Gomphosus cici-uleus is 
exhibited which shows no signs of change; it is in 
three per cent formal in which Epsom salt has been 
dissolved till it assumes the specific gravity of milk. 
It does not preserve the colours of other fish ; in fact 
quite the contrary, it is very destructive to them. It 
seems a good preservative for reptiles. Common salt 
with formal has entirely supplanted the use of gum 
and glycerine or carbolicizedoil for fish to be mounted 
in glycerine. The solution is saturated with salt and 
the fish placed in it for not more than eighteen hours, 
as after that discolouration proceeds with great 
rapidity ; they are then mounted in glycerine. This 
is an extremely cheap and cleanly process. Travel- 
lers might, however, prefer the following 
To whatever measure is used to make the three per 
cent, formal, mix the Siime measure of saturated 
solution of bichromate of potash with it. A few ounces 
of bichromate do the work of several pounds of 
salt ; at the same time it has the disadvantage 
of 'jxidiziiig the glycerine, and unless great care is 
tak 'n in washing out the superfluous salt a great 
waste of glycerine will be incurred. Formal is the 
only thing that prevents the growth of fungus in 
solutions of glycerine. I am experimenting on half 
glycerine and water as a mounting solution. Of 
all modiams that is the most beautiful. It is not so 
refractive as pure glycerine, whilst it i^ much 
brighter than water and far more so than spirit ; 
aud of course there is no evaporation to speak of. 
It is also easier to protect the specimens from the 
dehydrating power of glycerine, which renders 
good mounts in this substance so difficult to prepare ; 
bat I fear it will not prove trustworthy with 
regard to colour, as there is so much water in it. 
Only a very little formal is required, about one 
hundred dropa to half a gallon. The specimens 
must be prepared by some pi n h'ss, sncli as salt or 
bichromate of potash before being placed in it, other- 
wise they become distorted. 
BIRD3.— The arrival of the fourth volume of the 
■'Fauna of British India" his enabled mo to oom- 
plote the re-namiug and re-arrangemout of tho bird 
colleoti on. Our casea will not allow of the large 
waders being arranged in exact accordance with this 
work, and I have been moss unwillingly obliged to 
place the flamingoes after the Pygopodes instead 
of before the Anseres. They are however large and 
conspicuous birds, and I trust that stiideuts will 
suffer little inconvenience from their displacement. 
Two large boxes have been placed in the taxider- 
mist's room for the reception of the large duplicates, 
such as pelicans and flamingoes. The whole of the 
duplicates have been carefully re-labelled and re. 
numbered according to the new catalogue. A great 
numlDer of the old exhibi;ed specimens have been 
replaced by new, and I have also commenced renew- 
ing the duplicates, and shall continue to do ao as 
quickly as the finp.nces allow. 
Whilst reviewing the duplicate collection, I took 
the opportunity of making a careful study of our 
skuas, which had never been properly determined. 
REPTILES —Mr. Swayne has presented a number 
of m'lch-needed duplicates. 
Mr. Todd kindly lent me the skin of the cobra that 
he shot at .Jaffna, 7 feet 9 inches long. I was in hopes 
that it might prove to be the skin of an Ophiophat/as, 
but it is an undoubted Xaja tripudiatifi, alzhoughby 
far the largest ever recorded. A good set of Calotes 
liocephaliis was obtained at Gammaduwa ; the collec- 
tion only contained one bad specimen previously. A 
good specimen has also been obtained of the very rare 
Acnntias liyardi. 
Frogs. — A duplicate of the specimen entered as D 
was obtained at Kandy. I hope to be able to send 
it to the British Museum next year with one or two 
other undetermined specimens. Mr. Swayne presented 
a fine example of the very rare Rana grdci/s, also 
what I consider a variety of Rana corrugata bat which 
may prove to be a new species. 
Pish. — Two very interestin,; specimens have been 
obtained this year, one a quite unlike anything 
I can find described in the .M useum Library and also 
a fish belonging o- allied to the genus Acanthoclinus. 
This is an Australian group, one species of which 
has been discovered off iladras. This is certainly 
not the Madras species. 
MoLLUscA. — Mr. Gollett still continues his presenta- 
ions of named land shells. No new sea shells have 
been added to the collection. A duplicate of our fine 
sepia exhibited in the north-east gallery was forwarded 
to the ELorniman Museum. Mr. Slade kindly took it to 
the British Museum to he identified, but it appears to 
be quite unknown. The Opisthohrancluate, so abundant 
on the Beruwala reef but which has never been found 
anywhere else on our coast, is Thethys pulmonica 
Gould. No specimens appear to exist in the national 
collection. 
The Longicornes and flower beetles had to be 
removed to allow of re-papapering the case. I took 
this opportunity of going through the whole collection 
with what books we have whilst they were lying in 
my office. The Longicornes were reported on in 
1896, and I grieve to say that I have nothing to add 
since. I can do nothing with the Chrysomelidee. 
Those that are named were named from 
Jacoby's figures; but this is only a short paper relating 
to Mr. Lewis's collection. Boheman's " Cassididoe " 
is a hopeless work, aud the literature of these 
beetles and their allies comprises two other 
large monographs, both unillustrated and conse- 
quently equally useless. Of course I am not speaking 
of the classifications proposed in such woi-ks, or o£ 
the determination of the principal groups and of 
the genera. Such things must be left to spooi^lists ; 
and our library must be supplied with Boheman, 
Suffrians, aud others, in order to enable the Direc- 
tor to verity already named specimens and for 
reference in case any student wish to take up the 
study of these families. I mention this subject 
here Apropos of " Dis Thierreich," which is merely 
a re-pubiicati in (revised andoabtedly) of these 
thousands of useless descriptions. If the German 
naturalints had started a republioatiou of tlie btvst 
tigarcs of every species hitherto figured, and figured 
all the doiioribod speoiei that have never bceu 
figored, we should have had a really rnioful wjrk 
